Why are there barricades along Disneyland’s Main Street U.S.A?

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Temporary fencing surrounds The Hub in front of Sleeping Beauty Castle on Main Street, USA at Disneyland in Anaheim on Thursday, Jan 18, 2018. The park is replacing the horse-drawn streetcar track and brickwork along the street. All vehicle rides along the street are closed through early Spring. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

If you’re wondering why Disneyland’s Main Street is covered with wooden barricades, there’s a simple reason: The park is replacing the track that carries the iconic horse-drawn streetcars up and down the street.

That’s right. You won’t hear the clop-clop-clop of horses’ hooves in the park until the project is finished, sometime in early spring.

It entails ripping up 3,500 feet – about two-thirds of a mile – of existing track, replacing it and adding 50,000 decorative brick pavers.

Horse-drawn streetcars were part of Walt Disney’s plan for his park from the beginning, to augment the Main Street theme of turn-of-the-century small-town America. Disneyland owns four streetcars, their design based on trolleys from Chicago, Boston and Philadelphia from around 1880.

Walt Disney looks over finishing touches to the streetcar tracks on Main Street shortly before Disneyland opens. Photo courtesy of Disneyland Park.

Typically, only one streetcar carrying a maximum of 24 people travels up and down Main Street at a time. Each trip takes around 7.5 minutes, pulled by one of 18 horses owned by Disneyland and now stabled out at Circle D Ranch in Norco.

Disney officials said the horses, which they consider to be equine “cast members,” are continuing to train, play and relax as usual until they are called back to work.

In addition to the vacationing horses, the park’s vintage fire engine, omnibus and horseless carriages are also on hiatus. The streetcars were operating on Disneyland’s opening day in 1955. The vintage horseless carriages and omnibus were added in 1956, and the fire engine in 1958.

Todd Regan, who writes and edits the MiceChat blog under the pen name Dusty Sage, said the repairs to Main Street are necessary, even though “it’s really negatively affecting the guests right now, because they can’t have parades or fireworks.”

“It’s time to do it. The parade performers have to dance on cracks in the street,” Regan said. “Strollers are getting caught and people are tripping on them.”

A 2015 photo of a horse-drawn trolley at Disneyland. . Originally, the trolleys had a fare box, and the fare was 10 cents. You could also use an “A Coupon” to ride the trolleys, until Disneyland eliminated the coupon books in the early 1980s. The horses only work four-hour shifts, and spend the rest of their time at the Circle D Ranch in Norco. (File photo by Mark Eades, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Temporary fencing surrounds The Hub, and The Partners Statue, in front of Sleeping Beauty Castle on Main Street, USA at Disneyland in Anaheim on Thursday, Jan 18, 2018. The park is replacing the horse-drawn streetcar track and brickwork along the street. All vehicle rides along the street are closed through early Spring. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Temporary fencing surrounds Town Square at the base of Main Street, USA at Disneyland in Anaheim on Thursday, Jan 18, 2018. The park is replacing the horse-drawn streetcar track and brickwork along the street. All vehicle rides along the street are closed through early Spring. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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Temporary fencing surrounds Town Square at the base of Main Street, USA at Disneyland in Anaheim on Thursday, Jan 18, 2018. The park is replacing the horse-drawn streetcar track and brickwork along the street. All vehicle rides along the street are closed through early Spring. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Temporary fencing surrounds Town Square at the base of Main Street, USA at Disneyland in Anaheim on Thursday, Jan 18, 2018. The park is replacing the horse-drawn streetcar track and brickwork along the street. All vehicle rides along the street are closed through early Spring. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Temporary fencing surrounds The Hub in front of Sleeping Beauty Castle on Main Street, USA at Disneyland in Anaheim on Thursday, Jan 18, 2018. The park is replacing the horse-drawn streetcar track and brickwork along the street. All vehicle rides along the street are closed through early Spring. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Temporary fencing surrounds Town Square at the base of Main Street, USA at Disneyland in Anaheim on Thursday, Jan 18, 2018. The park is replacing the horse-drawn streetcar track and brickwork along the street. All vehicle rides along the street are closed through early Spring. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Jessie Mantei, a trainer, attaches the harness of one of the horses at the Disney-owned Circle D Ranch in Norco to a training cart. When the horses are not being used at the Disneyland Resort to pull the horse-drawn streetcars on Main Street U.S.A., they spend time at the ranch, including continuous training while at the ranch. (Photo by Mark Eades, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Some of the stable attendants at Disneyland’s Circle D Ranch in Norco attend to Bert, one of the Disneyland Resort’s horses. Bert is in training to soon be able to pull the Horse-Drawn Streetcars on Main Street U.S.A. at Disneyland. While in training, or when not needed at the park, Bert and the other horses will now stay at the Norco ranch facility. (Photo by Mark Eades, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Of course with the Horse-Drawn Streetcars can come physical reminders that a horse has passed by, so this Custodian wanders Main Street U.S.A. at the Magic Kingdom of Walt Disney World with what is known as the “honey” cart, ready to immediately scoop up any of those objects. (Photo by Mark Eades, Orange County Register/SCNG)

The Horse-Drawn Streetcars have their own “Car Barn” in Town Square of Main Street U.S.A. at the Magic Kingdom of Walt Disney World. The barn is adjacent to the Firehouse. (Photo by Mark Eades, Orange County Register/SCNG)

The clip-clop sound of horses in front of the Horse-Drawn Streetcars are one of the feature attractions on Main Street U.S.A. at Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom theme park. (Photo by Mark Eades, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Marla Jo Fisher was a workaholic hard news reporter before she adopted two children from foster care at age 46, picked up a scruffy dog along the way and somehow managed to keep them all alive, at least so far. She now writes the Frumpy Middle-Age Mom humor column that appears in the Orange County Register weekly. Due to her status as the cheapest person alive, she also writes about deals and bargains for the Register, including her Cheapo Travel column which also runs in newspapers around the country. When she's not having a nervous breakdown, she's usually traveling somewhere cheaply and writing about it.

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